Women in Computer Science and Mathematics face particular challenges in pursuing and maintaining academic and scientific careers. Women are significantly under-represented at all levels of the academic pipeline, while the very few women students involved in Computing and Mathematical Research need to be aware of their talent and role in the scientific community. Indeed, the scarcity of senior women academicians produces the lack of critical information about the culture and content required for pursuing careers in the mathematical sciences. It is for this reason that the Association Computability in Europe has been coordinating a Women in Computability program since 2007, hosted during the annual CiE conference.
In 2016, after the new ACiE constitution allowed for the possibility of creating special interest groups, a proposal for the establishment of an ACiE special interest group Women in Computability was made to and approved by the council. Our aim is to increase women’s participation in this series and to offer an opportunity to discuss matters related to women in computer science and mathematics.
The ACiE SIG-WiC maintains a mailing list.
Support instruments.
The WiC programme supports women researchers by travel grants, a mentorship programme and an annual WiC workshop:
- Travel grants. Every year, WiC offers a number of modest travel grants for junior women researchers to attend the CiE conferences. Details about this grant (including information about how to apply and deadlines) can be found on the webpages of the individual conferences.
- Mentorship programme. The mentorship programme aims to team up young researchers with more senior women researchers in the CiE community, giving them an opportunity to learn from experience and develop a network.
- WiC Workshop. Every year, we have a WiC workshop at the CiE conferences during which senior women researchers give a personal account of their careers. After the workshop, all speakers, mentors, and mentees are invited to an informal dinner.
For more information about the programme as a whole, please contact Liesbeth de Mol.
History of the programme. The programme Women in Computability started in 2007, sponsored by the Computer Research Association’s Committee on the Status of Women in Computing Research (CRA-W). From 2008 to 2010, the programme was funded by a grant entitled Increasing representation of female researchers in the computability community by the Elsevier Foundation. From 2011 to 2014 the program was funded by the publisher Elsevier. Since 2016 the WiC programme is funded by the ACM’s Women in Computing. In 2019 the programme was also funded by L’Oreal – Bulgaria.
In 2019 SIGWIC has agreed to support the Barbara Liskov grant which is organized by Jetbrains. For more informations, see:
https://www.jetbrains.com/promo/students/grants/.
The list of all WiC workshops can be found below.
Year: 2022
WiC Organizer(s): Liesbeth De Mol (Lille, France) , Johanna Franklin (Hofstra University, USA)
Workshop Speakers: Troy Astarte (Swansea University, UK), Dora Giammarresi (Università di Roma, Italy)
Year: 2021
WiC Organizer(s): Liesbeth De Mol (Lille, France) , Johanna Franklin (Hofstra University, USA)
Workshop Speakers: Laura Crosilla (University of Oslo, Norway), Joan Rand Moschovakis (Occidental College, USA), Christine Tasson (Université Paris Diderot, France)
Year: 2020
WiC Organizer(s): Mariya I. Soskova (Wisconsin–Madison, USA)
Workshop Speakers: Ekaterina Fokina (Vienna University of Technology, Austria),
Marinella Sciortino (University of Palermo, Italy), Virginia Vassilevska-Williams (MIT, USA)
Year: 2019
WiC Organizer(s): Liesbeth De Mol (Lille, France), Elvira Mayordomo (Universidad de Zaragoza, Spain), Johanna Franklin (Hofstra University, USA)
Workshop Speakers: Erika Ábrahám (RWTH Aachen University, Germany),
Ursula Martin (University of Oxford, UK), Sara Uckelman (Durham University, UK)
Sponsor: ACM’s Women in Computing, L’Oreal – Bulgaria
Year: 2018
WiC Organizer(s): Liesbeth De Mol (Lille, France)
Workshop Speakers: Mai Gehrke (Université Côte d’Azur, France), Elvira Mayordomo (Universidad de Zaragoza, Spain), Monika Seisenberger (Swansea University, UK)
Grantees: Marta Fiori Carones (Università degli Studi di Udine, Italy), Marie Nicholson (Cork Institute of Technology, Ireland), Sabrina Ouazanni (Paris-Est Créteil, France), Olga Petrovska (Swansea University, UK)
Sponsor: ACM’s Women in Computing.
Year: 2017
WiC Organizer(s): Liesbeth De Mol (Lille, France)
Workshop Speakers: Juliette Kennedy (University of Helsinki, Finland), Karen Lange (Wellesley College, USA)
Grantees: Shilpa Garg (Max Planck Institute for Computer Science, Germany), Uhla Karhumäki (University of Manchester, UK), Karoliina Lehtinen (University of Kiel, Germany), Sabrina Ouazanni (Paris-Est Créteil, France), Svetlana Puzynina (ATER, Université Paris Diderot, France), Manon Stipulante (Université de Liège, France)
Sponsor: ACM’s Women in Computing.
Year: 2016
WiC Organizer(s): Liesbeth De Mol (Lille)
Workshop Speakers: Natasha Alechina (University of Nottingham, UK), Delaram Kahrobaei (CUNY), Ksenia Tatarchenko (University of Geneva)
Grantees: Kelsey Horan (CUNY), Rakshan Harifi (University of Tehran)
Sponsor: ACM’s Women in Computing.
Year: 2015
WiC Organizer(s): Liesbeth De Mol (Lille)
Workshop Speakers:Johanna Franklin (Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY), Anca Muscholl (Labri, Université Bordeaux I), Cezara Drăgoi (CNRS/INRIA/Equipe Antique, Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris)
Year: 2014
WiC Organizer(s): Liesbeth De Mol (Lille)
Workshop Speakers: Barbara Csima (Waterloo ON), Maribel Fernandez (London), Eva Tardos (Cornell NY)
Grantees: Tahel Ronel (University of Manchester)
Year: 2013
WiC Organizer(s):Mariya Soskova (Sofia)
Workshop Speakers: Laxmi Parida (Yorktown Heights NY), Liesbeth De Mol (Gent)
Grantees: Katharine Barr (Leeds), Daniela Genova (Jacksonville FL), Lisha Li (Berkeley CA), Velislava Stoykova (Sofia)
Year: 2012
WiC Organizer(s):Mariya Soskova (Sofia)
Workshop Speakers: Dorit Aharonov (Jerusalem), Lenore Blum (Pittsburgh PA), Ann Copestake (Cambridge)
Grantees: Bahareh Afshari (Edinburgh), Ilayda Ateş (Istanbul), Catrin Campbell-Moore (Oxford), Simona De Nicola (Bologna), Rebecca Steiner (New York, NY), Darya Verveyko
Year: 2011
WiC Organizer(s):Mariya Soskova (Sofia)
Workshop Speakers: Çiğdem Gencer (Istanbul), Valentina Harizanov (Washington DC), Alexandra Shlapentokh (Greenville NC)
Mentors:Valentina Harizanov (Washington DC), Julia Knight (Notre Dame IN),Alexandra Shlapentokh (Greenville NC)
Grantees: Daniela Genova, Irina Georgescu, Caroline Rogers, Rebecca Steiner (New York NY), Linda Brown Westrick
Year: 2010
WiC Organizer(s):Paola Bonizzoni (Milan), Alessandra Carbone (Paris), Hélia Guerra (Ponta Delgada), Elvira Mayordomo Cámara (Zaragoza)
Workshop Speakers: Sara Negri (Helsinki), Toniann Pitassi (Toronto ON)
Mentors:Hannah Bast (Freiburg), Natasha Jonoska (Tampa FL), Sara Negri (Helsinki)
Grantees: Ekaterina Komendantskaya (Dundee), Karen Lange (Notre Dame IN), Kristina Liefke (Tilburg), Padmavati Metta (Durg), Sara Quinn (Evanston IL),
Sara L. Uckelman (Amsterdam), Regina Tukhbatullina (Novosibirsk)
Year: 2009
WiC Organizer(s):Paola Bonizzoni (Milan), Elvira Mayordomo Cámara (Zaragoza)
Workshop Speakers: Christel Baier (Dresden), Julia Knight (Notre Dame IN)
Mentors:Christel Baier (Dresden), Erzsébet Csuhaj-Varjú (Budapest), Julia Knight (Notre Dame IN)
Grantees: Guénola Drillon (Paris), Ekaterina Komendantskaya (Dundee), Sara Quinn (Notre Dame IN), Alla Sirokofskich (Athens), Monika Steinová (Zürich)
Year: 2008
WiC Organizer(s): Paola Bonizzoni (Milan), Elvira Mayordomo Cámara (Zaragoza)
Workshop Speakers: Alessandra Carbone (Paris), Antonina Kolokolova (St. John’s NL)
Mentors: Alessandra Carbone (Paris), Erzsébet Csuhaj-Varjú (Budapest), Antonina Kolokolova (St. John’s NL)
Year: 2007
WiC Organizer(s): Paola Bonizzoni (Milan), Elvira Mayordomo Cámara (Zaragoza)
Workshop Speakers: Anne Condon (Vancouver BC), Serena Dinelli (Milan), Natasha Jonoska (Tampa FL), Carmen Leccardi (Milan)
The following links may be of interest to Workshop participants.
AAAS
ACM-W and ACM-W Europe
AWM
CRA-W
EWM
IMU Committee for Women in Mathematics
L’Oréal-UNESCO
Mainly for UK based participants: see the WISE list of Organisations offering funding for women and girls.
If you wish to suggest further links to be added to this list, please contact Laura Crosilla
